QUESTIONS?

This post is for Maria, and anyone else who writes to me with questions from this blog.  If you just hit the 'reply' button I will receive your email but with a 'no-reply' address.  If you want a specific reply to a question, please write me directly at my email address:  jimjohnstonart@gmail.com

MURIEL IN MOROCCO

The travel website perceptivetravel.com  has just published another of my stories, this time about a recent visit with my mother in Morocco,

where she's working as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Click HERE to read the story (the link does not work from your email--you must go to my blog first).

If you're interested in following more of Mom's adventures, check out her blog at www.muriel-morocco.blogspot.com

HOME AGAIN

I returned yesterday from a week in New York City.  I needed a bite of the Big Apple--museums, theater, opera, Chinese food.  I got all that and a snowstorm, too--something I've been missing for years.

March 3 was the 13th anniversary of my move to Mexico, and after thirteen years, I finally feel like a tourist in my old home town.  New York has changed, I've changed, and now Mexico City is home.  Since I'd lived in New York for almost 30 years before moving to Mexico, the place is familiar, but the gap between my experiences in the two cities has widened.  Now it's wide enough so that I really feel like a visitor from abroad--and frankly it's a lot more fun.  What doesn't change is that New York is where my oldest friends live, and no matter how long I live in Mexico I will never have 'old friends' here.  So, if home is where the heart is, I still live in two places.

When I got back to el DF winter was over.  I was glad to return to the land of color (it seems that black is still the official color of New York).  It was 80 degrees, the sun was shining with a clear, golden light, and the first blue-violet jacaranda blossoms were out, along with the screaming scarlet of the colorìn flowers.  I strolled across the park for a couple of tacos at my favorite stand.  Not a bad place to live, I thought to myself.

But things have changed in a week, aside from the weather.  A new restaurant opened on my corner, the city is suddenly filled with bicycles that you can 'borrow' and ride from place to place (see this website to learn about the project), and the first marriage licences were issued to gay couples on March 4.  But it all moves at a more leisurely pace than in New York, and there's less tension in the air.  It may take me a few days to slow down, but it's great to be home.